The big news from the latest 13f filing from billionaire investor George Soros is the bet he’s placing on emerging markets. But the reports dies include more disclosures. Besides rebuilding the stake in barrack Barrick Gold (ABX) after significantly reducing the position earlier this year, he expanded the fund’s exposure to energy names, introduced small stakes sin several biotechnology stocks and added call options on 1.37 million shares of Bank of America (BAC).

One month down and two more to go before we can close the book on the fourth quarter of 2016. For ETF fund flows, the news has circled around the dramatic spike in bond fund redemptions in the face of inflation fears and rising expectations for a Fed rate hike.

For the month of October, iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD) topped the list of ETF outflows compiled by ETF.com. And more than 1.2 billion combined flowed out of the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) and the SPDR Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (JNK), the two largest high yield bond funds.

But the fund flow data for October also shows that money flowed into emerging markets, as well as financial and energy stocks, and more than $1.4 billion exited two real estate funds – the iShares U.S. Real Estate ETF (IYR) and the Vanguard REIT Index Fund (VNQ).

Vanguard Group says that the $50 billion Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund has embarked on its transition to own mainland Chinese stocks, a shift designed to boost the heft of the second-largest economy in this popular index-tracking fund.

Emerging market ETFs are gaining today after data about China’s factory and services activity proved not as bad as some had feared and crude oil prices posted a gain.

Three separate surveys showed Chinese companies cut jobs last month as they battled soft demand, suggesting that economic growth may have slipped below 7% in the first quarter of 2015. However, the numbers were better than many had expected and Chinese stocks rose.

As Paul Weisbruch, vice-president of ETF/options sales and trading at Street One Financial, told Barrons.com:

China is up and many of its trading partners, like Brazil and Russia, are up as well. It looks like an uniform emerging markets rally. There have been signs of that before today. There has been good momentum since the middle of Marc. Some of that is oil related, thought the oil market has had some stutter steps. But if oil stabilizes or rises higher, it is a good tail wind that should help everyone from Russia to Brazil and China.

Investors worldwide pulled $5.7 billion out of European stock funds in the week ended Oct. 15, marking the single largest exit of cash in a single week since 2000.

In a report published late yesterday by Citigroup, data showed that stock funds saw $2 billion of outflows during the same week, while bond funds recorded $6.3 billion in inflows. U.S. equity funds were the only stock-linked fund category that recorded inflows, attracting $7.8 billion. All of that new cash flowed into ETFs, according to Citigroup

Global funds recorded outflows for the first time in 17 weeks, totaling $1.7 billion. GEM funds posed outflows totaling $1.4 billion. In emerging markets, China was a big loser, responsible for $1.4 billion in outflows.

Is the volatility spike over or just the beginning? That’s a good question with the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) hitting a new two year high.

At 26.95, the Wall Street’s fear gauge surged more than 20% to 27.47 in early afternoon market action after earlier climbing above 28. The VIX hasn’t traded this high since 2012.

Volatility has surged since July, when the index hit a 52-week low of 10.2. The VIX is inversely correlated with the S&P 500 and many view it as an indicator of market peaks.

The main stock markets in the U.S., UK, Japan and Europe have been roiled recently by worries about global growth, interest rates, dangerously low inflation in Europe and ripples from a steep drop in oil prices. Today, the Dow dropped more-than-200-points.

But some pundits argue that investors need to put the Vix’s performance in context. According to Daniel P. Wiener, CEO of Adviser Investments, a Newton, MA-based money management firm, the index “bounces around like a ping pong ball on illicit pharmaceuticals.”

Meanwhile, the index has averaged 13.77 for all of 2014, which is well below the index’s long-term mean of 20.

Wiener later added:

…we have been experiencing one of the most risk-less, calm, easy-going markets in years. It won’t always be this way, and if the rest of 2014 brings us up to even average we’ve got a bunch of volatile days to come. Deal with it!

The trading in the market’s usual risk sectors certainly suggests investors are worried. The small cap Russell 2000 is down by -.7% to 1.054,31. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) is down 2% while the Direxion Daily Emerging Markets Bear 3X ETF (EDZ) is leaping almost 5.9%.

Volatility-trading vehicles are flying off the shelves, not that they’re easy to catch when they do that. VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX Short-Term ETN (TVIX), the ProShares Ultra VIX Short- Term Futures (UVXY) and Barclays iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) are gaining by anywhere from 7.7% to 15.5%.

With global investors showing far less confidence in the global economy, the demand for risky assets such as commodities, European equities and emerging markets is shrinking fast.

That’s according to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey for October. Released today, the poll results show that only 32% of the fund managers surveyed expect the global economy to strengthen over the next 12 months, marking the weakest showing in two years. Also, corporate earnings expectations have wilted to an 18-month low.

As a result, money managers have slashed their equity allocations to a two-year low at a 34% overweight, cut their emerging market exposure for the first time in five years, raised bond allocations, increased their underweight in commodities and hiked their cash positions to 4.9%, the survey found.

“Cash balances are high, but investors are retreating to benchmark positions rather than staging an exodus from markets,” said Michael Hartnett, chief investment strategist at BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research.

To blame for the fear? Diminishing central bank stimulus. According to the survey, just 18% of fund managers believe monetary policy is too simulative. The Federal Reserve remain on course to end its bond-buying program this month.

Also, more than a quarter of those investors surveyed said they don’t see the ECB launching a bond-buying quantitative easing program, up from 19% in September.

The monthly survey of 220 money managers responsible for $640 billion of investments was conducted between Oct. 3 and Oct. 9, and reflects the recent surge in volatility and uncertainty that has roiled stock markets in the U.S., UK, Japan and Germany and caused a plunge in benchmark government bond yields.

September was a bad month for hedge funds investing in emerging markets.

According to data released today by eVestment, emerging markets suffered losses of 3.27%, or more than twice that of developed markets. Granted, India-focused fund losses were muted and those with high exposure to the country remain the best performing subset of the hedge fund industry, data showed. But the 10.56% decline recorded by funds investing in Brazil was the largest since September 2011.

Emerging Europe suffered a 3.4% drop, followed by a 2.6% drop by Russia and a 2.23% decline by China. Hedge funds declined an average of 0.74% in September.

As for the entire third quarter, funds investing in emerging markets fell 1.95%, compared to a 1.59% drop by developed market, according to data from eVestment.

Meanwhile, the broader hedge fund industry ended the period down 0.48% compared to a 1.13% rise by the S&P 500 index.

About Focus on Funds

As exchange-traded funds and other investing vehicles have ballooned in number, the task of figuring out what works well and what doesn’t has only gotten harder. Barrons.com’s Focus on Funds looks under the hood of ETFs, mutual funds and hedge funds for overlooked values, actionable ideas and the latest pitfalls for fund investors.